 Hi all, Salvatore with a brief review of Bharat, India 2.0 by Professor Gautam Desiraju. Desiraju opens his book with a proposition, quote, a nation wherein the Constitution is in tune with the spirit of its people and captures the spirit, becomes strong and self-reliant. A country where there is a mismatch remains metastable even if the Constitution is entirely intelligible in intent and logical in structure. Now, I tend to agree with that proposition. Desiraju then goes on to provide a deeply informed and analytical overview of India's current Constitution, India 1.0, before asking what it would take for India to move more effectively towards the future in an India 2.0. His key recommendation is federalism, and he argues using analogies from both art and science for a more decentralized India of 70 to 80 states. Indians will enjoy second-guessing his state proposals, but he acknowledges that the specific states to be created aren't the main issue. The issue is government matched to the spirit of the people. Desiraju's book is more a provocative proposition than a convincing case. Those who want to poke holes in it will find many opportunities to do so, but those who engage with it sincerely will come away more educated and, dare I say, more enlightened for having done so. I highly recommend the book, and I hope you enjoy it. Now, my own main question for Desiraju is, is India's Constitution today really not in tune with the spirit of the people? It may not be in tune with the spirit of all of the people, but a Constitution is a compromise among many segments of society, and of course everyone will have different ideas of what the spirit of the people is. My own impression is that India's Constitution remarkably encapsulates and coordinates the spirit of all the very different people who make up India, so I'm personally not convinced that India needs a new Constitution, but I'm not Indian, Desiraju is, and I encourage you to engage with his views even more than I encourage you to engage with mine.